Interesting article for Youth about Heavenly Father

[_Darth J]

Many Mormons will be writing to them about it. But one thing I do know: the LDS church teaches that if one is faithful, they will be reunited with their heavenly parents. Difficult for this to happen if one has their own planet.

We're all of course familiar with how children who grow up and get their own homes and start their own families are thereby cut off from communication or interaction with their parents.

[_Darth J]

“You are sent to this world with a very serious purpose. You are sent to school, for that matter, to begin as a human infant and grow to unbelievable proportions in wisdom, judgment, knowledge, and power” (The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, ed. Edward L. Kimball [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1982], p. 31).

Spencer Kimball taught this, and then Gordon Hinckley told Mike Wallace of us becoming gods that he didn't know that we teach it, he didn't know that we emphasize it, and the critics cried foul.

But Hinckley really was telling the truth. Today's LDS Church actually doesn't teach it, and it definitely doesn't emphasize it. Kimball and others taught it, but it certainly doesn't play a prominent role in today's church. Other things we teach take a much higher priority. The fact that our eventual exaltation means that God has it planned for us that we will eventually become fully divine ourselves, is really just a footnote. A logical conclusion to the process yes, but a footnote nonetheless.

Nope.

Gordon B. Hinckley was on 60 Minutes in 1996. I provided a quote from Henry B. Eyring in the Ensign about us becoming gods and having our own planets that was made 6 years after the 60 Minutes interview.

The entire purpose of the Plan of Salvation, the point of the temple endowment, and consistent LDS teachings for 170 years (give or take) are not "just a footnote." You may be perfectly willing to agree with President Newsroom that, "You're right! We really have always been at war with Eastasia!" But your eagerness to follow the disingenuous party line does not control the flow of information for other people.

There's a difference between "the church has not taught" and "the church is teaching." The former uses the past tense and the latter uses the present. I have not "admitted that we do teach it," but rather I have admitted that the church has taught it in the past.

The manuals probably existing do not make Hinckley's statements false. It would only be the manuals actually existing that would make Hinckley's statement a lie. Please either produce the manual(s) or stop calling Hinckley's statement a lie.

Current manuals specifically talking about exalted Mormons having their own planets have already been provided in the second post of this thread. Now that you want to broaden this to include godhood in general, here are some more examples:

Gospel Principles, Chapter 47: Exaltation

The Prophet Joseph Smith taught: "When you climb up a ladder, you must begin at the bottom, and ascend step by step, until you arrive at the top; and so it is with the principles of the Gospel--you must begin with the first, and go on until you learn all the principles of exaltation. But it will be a great while after you have passed through the veil [died] before you will have learned them. It is not all to be comprehended in this world; it will be a great work to learn our salvation and exaltation even beyond the grave" (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 348).

This is the way our Heavenly Father became God. Joseph Smith taught: "It is the first principle of the Gospel to know for a certainty the character of God. . . . He was once a man like us; . . . God himself, the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth, the same as Jesus Christ himself did" (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pp. 345-46).

Lesson 32: “To Seal the Testimony”, Doctrine and Covenants and Church History Gospel Doctrine Teacher’s Manual, 183

What truths about the Godhead were restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith? (See D&C 130:22–23; Joseph Smith—History 1:17; and the following quotation.)

In a sermon given at the funeral of Elder King Follett on 7 April 1844, the Prophet Joseph Smith taught:

“God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens! That is the great secret. If the veil were rent today, and the great God who holds this world in its orbit, and who upholds all worlds and all things by his power, was to make himself visible,—I say, if you were to see him today, you would see him like a man in form—like yourselves in all the person, image, and very form as a man; for Adam was created in the very fashion, image and likeness of God, and received instruction from, and walked, talked and conversed with him, as one man talks and communes with another” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, sel. Joseph Fielding Smith [1976], 345).

Gordon B. Hinckley
September 1994 Ensign

In March of the year he died—1844—the Prophet had amplified this doctrine in a monumental address which he delivered in the grove which was just below the temple site. The text of that address has become an important doctrinal document in the theology of the Church. It is known as the King Follett Sermon.

Here are some examples compiled by board member Dwight Frye:

"The doctrine that God was once a man and has progressed to become a God is unique to this Church." - Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Brigham Young - Chapter 4: Knowing and Honoring the Godhead - LDS.org

"President Brigham Young taught the Latter-day Saints ... that God the Father was once a man on another planet who 'passed the ordeals we are now passing through; he has received an experience, has suffered and enjoyed, and knows all that we know regarding the toils, sufferings, life and death of this mortality.'" - Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Brigham Young - Chapter 4: Knowing and Honoring the Godhead - LDS.org

"Joseph Smith taught: 'It is the first principle of the Gospel to know for a certainty the character of God. … He was once a man like us; … God himself, the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth, the same as Jesus Christ himself did." - Gospel Principles: Chapter 47: Exaltation - LDS.org

The seminary manual, Doctrine and Covenants Student Study Guide, teaches the Snow couplet along with Snow's belief that it was a "revelation" from "the Spirit of the Lord" and "a sacred communication."

The Aaronic Priesthood Manual 2 quotes the Snow couplet, approvingly, by all appearances -- and in Lesson 1, no less!

The Doctrine and Covenants and Church History Gospel Doctrine Teacher’s Manual quotes the relevant portion of the King Follet Discourse after describing it as one of the "truths about the Godhead [that was] restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith."

The relevant portion(s) of the King Follet Discourse and/or the Lorenzo Snow couplet appear, without any indication that such teachings are false, questionable, speculative, opinion, or anything other than the gospel truth, in the following Church-published publications published by the Church, all available at LDS.org:

The Fulness of the Gospel: The Nature of the Godhead, Ensign, January 2006

The Quest for Spiritual Knowledge, New Era, January 2007

The King Follet Sermon, Ensign, April 1971

Q&A: Questions and Answers, New Era, April 1971

Our Great Potential, Ensign, May 1977

Gospel Art Picture Kit: Lorenzo Snow

Decision, Ensign, May 1978

Eliza R. Snow Poetry Contest Winners, Ensign, July 1989

Funstuf - President Lorenzo Snow Crossword, Friend, March 2002

Mormonad, New Era, June 1982

Mirthright, Ensign, March 1983

When Our Children Go Astray, Ensign, February 1997

Strengthening the Family: Created in the Image of God, Male and Female, Ensign, January 2005

And then there's this thing:

I Have a Question: Is President Lorenzo Snow’s oft-repeated statement—“As man now is, God once was; as God now is, man may be”—accepted as official doctrine by the Church?, Ensign, February 1982 (answer: yes)

And regarding the "pearls before swine" or "milk before meat" meme that believing Mormons like to turn to,
here's Joseph Smith, speaking specifically in the context of teaching that God was once being a mortal man who progressed to godhood:

"I am bold to declare I have taught all the strong doctrines publicly, and always teach stronger doctrines in public than in private."

Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith ,page 370